Who knew 'The Office' would be so damn relevant in 2018?

Fact: It's been more than five years since the series finale of The Office aired. But references to the show, memes, and screenshots of the beloved comedy are still shared on the regular.

National Pretzel Day is celebrated annually on April 26 with Stanley Hudson GIFs galore. When big news drops, the show's iconic fire drill reaction scene isn't far behind. And every baffling moment in today's news cycle gives people the urge to look for a nearby camera and pull a Jim Halpert.

Over the past three years especially — as former cast members like John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, and Steve Carell have taken on new roles, and American politics has become increasingly chaotic — The Office's presence online and in pop culture has only grown.

In 2018, a year filled with great comedies like The Good Place, Superstore, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, one has to wonder why we're all still so obsessed with a show about a paper company that premiered in 2005.

For some, like Donald Garverick, director of The Office! A Musical Parody, it's because connecting to the characters feels so effortless. "It's the characters and their relationships with each other. These are some of the most relatable characters ever portrayed on a sitcom," he told Mashable via email.

The Dunder Mifflin fam.

Image: Mitchell Haaseth/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Sarah Mackenzie Baron, who plays Michael Scott in the parody production, agrees that the relationships in the show give it such mass appeal. "It represents a family and friend construct that we can all relate to no matter your age, gender, or societal standing," she said. "Whether you've worked in a boring office, have an embarrassing family, or are a part of an incredible group of friends..."

But there's also a clear parallel between what's happening in Trump's America and what went down in Dunder Mifflin's Scranton branch.

Michael Scott might as well be president

If you'd have told viewers who spent years laughing at the delightfully entertaining, yet woefully unqualified, uneducated, and socially inappropriate Regional Manager of Dunder Mifflin that America would one day be led by a man who behaved in an uncannily similar way, they probably would have kept on laughing. But by 2016, when Donald Trump was elected president, the laughter had faded.

Just days after Trump was inaugurated and announced new members of his cabinet, people began drawing parallels between the comedy and American politics. The Office intro was quickly re-cut as The Oval Office to showcase Trump's own team of assembled sitcom characters, and the references only got deeper from there.

As the months passed and Trump became known for his unhinged Twitter rants and nonsensical claims about trivial things like crowd size, he began to remind people of Michael Scott — the quirky, sexist, culturally ignorant, problematic man child who possibly has Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Trump would almost certainly buy himself a World's Best President mug, too. But unfortunately, not all the similarities between the two men are innocent.

The misogynistic and racist actions Trump has exhibited over the course of his presidency also remind people of Michael. Following the #MeToo movement, many including GQ's Jaya Saxena, looked at the series through a new lens, and considered just how unacceptable Michael's sexist, racist, and toxic workplace behavior would be today.

It wasn't long until people realized they could essentially dig through the Michael Scott archives to respond to Donald Trump's every surreal move. And with every comparison, it became more and more concerning.

Trump recently claimed during a speech at the UN that his administration had accomplished more than any other administration in history and was met with laughter, only to later explain people weren't laughing at him, they were laughing with him because he made a joke. A total Michael Scott move.

When he had to clean up his whole "double negative" debacle and readdress the nation to claim there was no collusion, he amended his statement in the most Michael Scott way possible: By writing himself a reminder in massive Sharpie letters and misspelling the word "collusion."

Trump was reading for a typewritten script during his "clarification" moment but he made some handwritten additions, including: "THERE WAS NO COLLUSION" pic.twitter.com/0IfleZm8yJ

Political hell, meet comedic relief

Amidst all this political chaos, people are latching on so tightly to The Office as a coping mechanism. When times seem especially tough, we grow nostalgic for the comfort of the lighthearted show, and take refuge in it in an attempt to find any shred of comedic relief.

Michael's personality traits are far from the only parallel. The Office references have also been used to lighten the mood around Trump's perplexing hurricane quote, the Kanye drama, Kavanaugh's testimony, and more. And when Trump tested the Presidential Emergency Alert System it served as the perfect opportunity to revisit Michael screaming in disgust at Toby.

In other scenarios people see Donald Trump as a real life Michael Scott and the media as Toby Flenderson. But in extreme cases, fans think Trump's behavior surpasses even Michael's most outlandish actions.

Michael is problematic, but he does genuinely care about the people he's managing and never exhibits outright malicious intent to harm them (with the exception of his public hatred for Toby). His character also exhibits a bit of growth over the series, while Donald Trump's emotional instability and lack of professionalism appear to continually decline.

"In the first season, Michael is deeply flawed and barely tolerable, a person you would never want to know," Garverick said. "By the end of his run in the series, you found yourself actually rooting for him. I think we, the audience, hunger to see that kind of growth, both in our favorite fictional characters as well as in the people we see in our own lives."

At the end of the day, despite the temporary amusement that comes from comparing the two men, one is a fictional character purposely designed with an abundance of flaws to safely make people laugh, and the other is a real human being, exhibiting that same behavior but responsible for an entire country.

Dunder Mifflin lives on in spirit

The Office might not be on television anymore, but as mentioned above the show's been transformed into a parody musical that lets fans experience the beloved story in a completely new way. And the timing is far from unintentional.

Like the television show, Baron, who plays Scott, says the musical is "necessary in 2018. Not just as a social commentary but also as an escape."

"Necessary in 2018. Not just as a social commentary but also as an escape."

"We spend all day immersed in a world full of technology and 24-hour news coverage, and it's necessary for our wellbeing to take a break," she said. "The show takes place sometime in the early 2000's meaning there are no mentions of current politics or anything that has recently torn us apart as a society, which is difficult to come by in most current entertainment."

Though Steve Carell's not necessarily on board with a future reboot of the show, several cast members including John Krasinski, have recently expressed interest in a reunion of sorts. So perhaps fans won't have to live in the past forever. But until then, let the nostalgia carry on.

Mashable
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